Stronghold quests in chapter 6 ?

alkana

Hi !
I have read that it is preferable to do the stronghold quests in chapter 2, but why ?
I currently play a sorcerer and I would like to keep planar sphere quest for chapter 6. Will it be a problem for the stronghold ?
Thanks

SionIV

When you start your stronghold quests, you don't always get the quests immediately after each other, some of the strongholds will require a week or two (in game) between the quests. This is the reason many people do the Stronghold in chapter 2-3, because you're already spending a lot of time doing the other quests. If you end up saving your stronghold for chapter 6, and you've done all the quests in chapter 2-3, you'll end up having to wait a lot, or spend weeks resting to trigger the quests.

Arunsun

Some Stronghold quests take a bit of in-game time to trigger, (the fighter one needs 1 to 2 weeks of in-game time between each event).
But the Mage/Sorcerer stronghold is not that long. You can do it during chapter 6, it won't be too annoying.

Gallowglass

There's also the fairly obvious point that some of the Stronghold quests yield some pretty good items and XP, which many players like to acquire before setting off to rescue Imoen. I suspect that's the primary motive behind most of the "do it early" advice.

In particular, there are some good items in the Planar Sphere. Nevertheless, there's nothing in there which it is essential to acquire early. If it suits your game-plan to leave it until Chapter 6, then fine, it'll still be there when you come back.

MrNooby

I don't think the time-based part of it is relevant, since you can use rest to trigger them.

Lord_Tansheron

It's only a matter of convenience. Resting doesn't really change anything other than being a bit annoying to do in large chunks.

MrNooby

Goes by pretty quickly - only takes around 10 seconds each time to trigger the next quest. Although that being said, I don't know why you'd want to put off the strongholds for so long.

Caeria

Alternatively, if you don't want to rest, you can ctrl-t to speed up time. It's use of the console so if that makes uncomfortable you don't have to; nevertheless, it is an option.

alkana

Thank you for your answers. I would have actually preferred to do all the sidequests before chapter 4 but I want to get Imoen back, so I'm afraid she'll be far too underleveled... And planar sphere is my only remaining quest with temple ruins

Arunsun

alkana said:

Thank you for your answers. I would have actually preferred to do all the sidequests before chapter 4 but I want to get Imoen back, so I'm afraid she'll be far too underleveled... And planar sphere is my only remaining quest with temple ruins

The NPCs level scales with your up to 1.2M exp, if you don't go beyond that, she won't be underleveled

atcDave

alkana said:

Thank you for your answers. I would have actually preferred to do all the sidequests before chapter 4 but I want to get Imoen back, so I'm afraid she'll be far too underleveled... And planar sphere is my only remaining quest with temple ruins

Purely as a role playing issue I always prefer to rescue Immie as fast as possible, even to say it's often how I challenge myself from one game to the next; how fast can I recover sis and still survive the adventure that follows.
So I USUALLY only get to Nalia's adventure before its off to Spellhold. The other adventures all keep just fine, there's no need to rush them.

Giant2005

atcDave said:

Purely as a role playing issue I always prefer to rescue Immie as fast as possible, even to say it's often how I challenge myself from one game to the next; how fast can I recover sis and still survive the adventure that follows.
So I USUALLY only get to Nalia's adventure before its off to Spellhold. The other adventures all keep just fine, there's no need to rush them.

Me too but not so much as a roleplaying issue as I still like to get all of the sidequests done before going to rescue her. It basically turns into a "no rest" game as I scamper around the countryside trying to do every quest as fast as possible so I can save her and everyone else that needs help as promptly as possible.

Lord_Tansheron

RP-wise, it's a bit of a dilemma. Yeah Irenicus is a bad dude and Immy oh-so cute, but is it more urgent than citizens being eaten by wild animals? Shadow wolves sneaking into town at night, gobbling up babies and drunk old men out for a whiz?

Yeah, I could see Lord J being shoved down the list, and really, how bad are Beholder worshipers anyway. But the other quests? Do seem urgent enough to me, dunno.

Also, we do know Spellhold is a prison; not an execution chamber (that's what we are told anyway). People get sent there to stay for YEARS, if not decades. Yeah sure, it's no beach resort, but sitting in a cell for another week isn't that high a price to pay for literally saving lives in those other places. Sure, Irenicus turns out even madder than even we thought, but we can't know that. For all we know at that point, he's a prisoner, too. Right?

Gallowglass

Your companions even have a discussion about when to rescue Imoen (immediately after she and Irenicus are spirited away by the Cowled Wizards). Minsc advocates charging after her as soon as possible, Jaheira and Yoshimo argue that you'll need to be well-prepared (i.e. get some experience first, etc.)

abacus

I like the component of SCS that increases the rescue fee. I usually pick 60,000 (10grand/ party member)... Gives you an in-game reason to delay.

Lord_Tansheron

Also makes sense, breaking into a government magic asylum isn't chump change; which is what the original fee is, considering there's items more expensive than that.